History Files
 

Supporting the History Files

Contributed: £229

Target: £400

2023
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2023

The History Files still needs your help. As a non-profit site, it is only able to support such a vast and ever-growing collection of information with your help, and this year your help is needed more than ever. Please make a donation so that we can continue to provide highly detailed historical research on a fully secure site. Your help really is appreciated.

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The History Files

Archived Front Pages


The History Files has been online since 1 April 1999 (although the initial version was built in 1998, and its pre-web origins go back to 1982).

1999-2002: In the early days changes to the front page were intermittent, while most of the work effort was being directed towards building the king lists. Lacking any real differences, these earlier pages are not particularly exciting to look at.

2003-2007: From 2002 regular changes began to be made to the new list of latest developments. Initially this list was placed at the foot of the page, but in November 2003 the frontpage was re-styled and the list was moved to the sidebar, beginning a style which remained in use for some years.

2007-2012: With the beginning of a large-scale overhaul of the entire site from the start of 2007 (something which continues into the present day as various developments in mobile browsing make increasing demands on page styling), and the advent of 'banner features', things became very different. Since then, there have been several new banner features per year - sometimes as many as two a month in 2007! - and the archives filled out as a result.

Look out for the beginnings of the 'sharing' toolbar at the foot of each page. This has certainly evolved since its first appearance on 4 March 2007!

2012-2017: This front page style was established at the end of 2012 (with the last new banner feature of that year), and continued in use until the end of 2017 with only minor changes. It proved very easy to edit - vital with a site so large and with such frequent updates.

2018-Present: The latest frontpage style is less of a revolution and more of an evolution. With the previous version having proved so amenable to updating, the same basic function was retained, but with some improvements in the way the most prominent links were displayed. A responsive display was introduced from the start of 2019.

Archives

Archived front pages are indexed by year and date. Click on the link for a particular date and the page will open in a new window or tab. Unfortunately there are some gaps in the archives, noticeably for 2005 where front pages are completely unavailable. For much of that year the style used in 2004 was maintained, until it was replaced with a new style late in the year which was maintained throughout 2006.

Notes

Please note that some links on older pages may no longer be valid.

Some browsers may not display some older pages correctly, and some mobile platforms especially may have difficulty in rendering older pages properly (pre-2019). Mozilla Firefox seems to be the ideal method of viewing archived front pages, but even this may not render them exactly how they originally appeared.

Mobile users may see a white bar at the foot of the archive table instead of grey horizontal scroll bars. You can still use this white bar to scroll to the right and then return to the left.

Responsive web design was introduced at the start of 2019 (dates are shown below with a  dark grey backing  in place of the former light grey). A legacy frontpage was also introduced for older browsers which cannot cope with the latest html standards.

 

Key to dates:
28 Feb - legacy frontpage
01 Jan - Castles index
01 Jan - Churches index
01 Jan - Railway Walks index

 

2023

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2019

2018

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2015

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2011

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2005

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1999

                                                 

03 Feb

24 Dec
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28 Oct
16 Sep
15 Jul
03 Jun
29 Apr
25 Feb

24 Dec
29 Oct
17 Sep
23 Jul
11 Apr
19 Feb
01 Jan
01 Jan
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24 Dec
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05 Jun
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28 Feb
28 Feb
01 Feb
01 Feb
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01 Jan
01 Jan

22 Dec
22 Dec
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01 Nov
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06 Sep
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31 May
31 May
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22 Mar
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22 Dec
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03 Feb

24 Dec
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06 May
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01 Jan

17 Oct
05 Jun
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30 Dec
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23 May
10 Jan

03 Nov
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07 Jun
30 Mar
04 Mar
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25 Dec
01 Dec
28 Oct
29 Sep
01 Sep
29 Jul
01 Jul
03 Jun
28 Apr
01 Apr
04 Mar
29 Jan
02 Jan

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29 Aug
30 Jul
02 Jul
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30 Apr
27 Mar
27 Feb
29 Jan
02 Jan

04 Dec
31 Oct
03 Oct
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26 Jun
30 May
01 May
04 Apr
28 Feb
31 Jan
02 Jan

01 Nov
04 Oct
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04 Jul
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03 May
29 Mar
01 Mar
01 Feb
01 Jan

29 Nov
01 Nov
27 Sep
30 Aug
02 Aug
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31 May
27 Apr
04 Apr
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06 Jan

16 Dec
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26 Aug
12 Aug
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18 May
09 May
05 May
12 Apr
04 Mar
26 Feb
05 Jan

31 Dec
21 Oct
24 Sep
17 Jul
15 Jun
26 May
06 Mar
13 Feb

N/A*

09 Dec
11 Jun
24 Jan

20 Nov
02 Oct
10 Aug
04 Jun
04 Apr
07 Feb
24 Jan

16 Dec
03 Oct
02 Jun
11 Apr
13 Mar

03 Jun

01 Nov
22 Jun

01 Apr